What are Sugar Cravings?
- Paulina Hupka
- Feb 24
- 5 min read
A sugar craving is a biological and physiological reaction of your body. This sensation and desire to eat sugar signals that your sugar reservoir is below normal. This is a normal reaction.
To fully understand where sugar cravings come from, it’s important to understand how sugar is broken down and used by your body.
Understand the Cycle of Sugar Cravings
***excerpt from my sugar guide 2025***
When you eat sugar, it gets broken down into glucose, which the body uses to produce energy.
Glucose is absorbed through the intestines and enters the bloodstream, where it is transported to tissues throughout the body.
This triggers a series of processes.
Cells on the pancreas start releasing insulin into the bloodstream.
Insulin plays a critical role in blood sugar regulation:
It helps your body to absorb glucose into muscles and cells where it produces energy.
This, in turn, reduces glucose levels in the blood: Sugar moves from the bloodstream into muscles.
The presence of insulin in the blood also activates the liver to turn glucose into glycogen. This is the name of glucose in its stored form.
Glycogen is stored so that it can be used later when energy is needed.
This reduces glucose levels in the bloodstream as well.
So, using glucose (=sugar) in muscles or storing it for later reduces overall sugar in the blood.
The effect is that also insulin levels decline.
Once blood sugar levels drop too low, the pancreas becomes active. It makes sure that the sugar that has been stored (glucagon) is now released. So, the pancreas signals the liver to release stored glycogen and produce new glucose, restoring blood sugar to normal levels.
During long fasting periods, the body continues turning stored glucose into glucose (sugar).
But, at one point the sugar reserves are empty - stored glucagon is depleted.
This is when the body goes into alarm mode. It releases stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.
These hormones stimulate hunger and drive sugar cravings, encouraging the body to move and refill its energy reserves.
***excerpt end***
When your body craves to have its energy reserves filled, you might feel:
Hangry
Antsy,
Irritable, cranky, impatient
Emotional distress, angry, frustrated, stressed
Dizzy, light-headed, weak, headache
Difficulty concentrating
So, you move and eat the sugar, the cookies, the chocolate bars and the carbohydrates.
The cycle begins again.
As you eat sugar and it gets absorbed, glucose enters your bloodstream:
you experience a blood sugar spike.
Generally, every meal creates some sort of blood sugar increase.
The more plain carbohydrates you consume, the higher the spike and the higher the insulin release.
This rapid increase in blood sugar also rapidly drops as simple sugars are quickly used up.
What you now experience is again sugar craving, fatigue and hunger (hangry-ness).
The cycle continues and, over time, leads to overeating sugar and treats, leaving you feeling sluggish and irritated.[4]
These frequent blood sugar ups and downs can contribute to insulin resistance, inflammation, weight gain, increased risk of metabolic disease and diabetes.
The 'Addictive' Nature of Sugar
In addition, sugar acts similarly to drugs. While it is not addictive like these drugs, it can leave you feeling like you have a ‘sugar addiction.’
When you indulge in sugar and simple carbohydrates, not only does your blood sugar spike but also dopamine gets released, which leaves you feeling happy, energized and satisfied.
This short-lived, rewarding feeling fades quickly as blood sugar levels drop.
So, not only does your body crave quick energy, but your brain also craves more pleasure, and more dopamine.
The ups and downs of dopamine release and the frequent overstimulation can overload your brain’s reward system: your dopamine receptors become numb.
Over time, you might need more sugar to experience the same level of happiness and satisfaction.
This may leave you feeling like you are ‘addicted to sugar.’
In addition, some people may be affected by genetically reduced dopamine pathway function. This means that due to genetics, their dopamine activity is reduced, which impacts their behaviour in self-damaging ways such as simple sugar cravings and addictive, impulsive and compulsive disorders.[5]
What you can do today!
Easy first steps you can do today to address emotional eating, binge eating and reduce sugar cravings:
Eat balanced meals: By adding protein, fibre and fat to your carbohydrates you reduce the blood sugar spike. You have fewer sugar crashes and crave less sugar overall.
Develop Stress Management Habits:
Generally, our body can handle short-term stress well. But long-term stress impacts your physiology and when adrenaline and cortisol are released you might crave sugar.
Daily meditation, walking or singing can help your body to relearn what it means to not be stressed. Find what works best in your life.
Seek professional guidance: You can start by filling out my quiz to see where you land on the Stress and Sugar scale. Reach out to a professional that you feel safe with and be open to being challenged.
Remember to try out the quiz to find out where you are at and where you can start.
Conclusion
Knowing how sugar cravings develop can help you take appropriate action to reduce them. Sugar cravings can also come from emotional dysregulation or be an effect of too much stress.
So, now that you are familiar with the biology of sugar cravings, make sure to eat balanced meals and develop new ways to manage stress.
Sometimes, working with a coach or counsellor can be helpful because an outside perspective might bring your blind spots to the foreground. This helps you to become more honest with yourself and taking long-lasting action becomes easier and more natural.
Be courageous and talk to someone that you trust. You are not alone in your experience, and there is help available.
Reach out
I also offer support regarding this topic as well. I’m not a therapist yet but in my Nutritional Counselling practice, we work on
Nutrition basics: foods, nutrients and physiological changes influenced by food intake
Mindset shifts: identifying limiting beliefs, lightening the weight of these and thought patterns
Mindfulness and relaxation: reframing unhelpful thoughts, learning about the nervous system and finding ways to regain balance
Body image and Societal Influences: how they shaped the world and how we see beauty
Sustainable habits: let go of unhelpful patterns and build new supportive routines and systems
[1] Reichenberger, J., Schnepper, R., Arend, A. K., & Blechert, J. (2020). Emotional eating in healthy individuals and patients with an eating disorder: evidence from psychometric, experimental and naturalistic studies. The Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 79(3), 290–299. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0029665120007004
[2] Emotional eating | HealthLink BC. (n.d.). https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthy-eating-physical-activity/food-and-nutrition/eating-habits/emotional-eating
[3] Berkman ND, Brownley KA, Peat CM, et al. Management and Outcomes of Binge-Eating Disorder [Internet]. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2015 Dec. (Comparative Effectiveness Reviews, No. 160.) Table 1, DSM-IV and DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for binge-eating disorder. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK338301/table/introduction.t1/
[4] Hantzidiamantis PJ, Awosika AO, Lappin SL. Physiology, Glucose. [Updated 2024 Apr 30]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK545201/
[5] Blum, K., Thanos, P. K., & Gold, M. S. (2014). Dopamine and glucose, obesity, and reward deficiency syndrome. Frontiers in psychology, 5, 919. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00919
